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Leaders from around the world are arriving for the Munich Security Conference, which kicks off today. For the first time in years, members of Germany's far-right AfD party will be attending after the conference lifted a ban against them. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: One world leader who wasn't happy with the security conference's ban on the Alternative for Germany party was U.S. Vice President JD Vance. He said as much in his speech at the conference last year.
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JD VANCE: We don't have to agree with everything or anything that people say. But when political leaders represent an important constituency, it is incumbent upon us to at least participate in dialogue with them.
SCHMITZ: AfD member of Parliament Anna Rathert was moved by the speech.
ANNA RATHERT: One sentence that's most stuck in my mind was that he said, the United States will not and cannot protect you from your own people. And I thought that was very interesting. And that is really what democracy is about.
SCHMITZ: The AfD's Rathert is one of three AfD party delegates invited to this year's conference after a three-year ban. Her party is under domestic surveillance for the threat it's deemed to pose to the German Constitution. Party members have advocated for mass deportations of immigrants and naturalized citizens deemed not truly German. And the country's mainstream party has refused to govern with it. But Rathert says that AfD is a mainstream party in Germany. It's now polling in second place to the center-right CDU, the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
RATHERT: On a national level, we represent 27% of the population. So a very large population is supportive of us. They want to see our foreign policy perspectives represented in international circles, in international meetings.
SCHMITZ: And they will this weekend. The Brooking Institution's Constanze Stelzenmuller says she thinks the AfD should be allowed to attend the conference.
CONSTANZE STELZENMULLER: While I think it's absolutely unquestionable that the AfD is, to a great majority, composed of politically right-wing extremists, I think it's problematic to issue a blanket ban against a party that's not banned in Germany.
SCHMITZ: And there will be plenty for these AfD invitees to talk about. One of the hot topics coming into this conference is national sovereignty, given President Trump's threats to take Greenland. It's a topic that both the AfD and other mainstream European parties can agree on.
Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Munich.
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